Pomponius, the earliest Roman geographer, whose work has been preserved, lived, most probably in the reign of Claudius, A.D. 43, though we have no precise information respecting him. The passage which seems to place him in the time of Claudius, is that (iii. 6.) where he speaks of a mighty emperor who is going to celebrate a triumph on account of the conquest of Britain, and this conquest we know took place A.D. 42. Julius Caesar only reconnoitered the coast and could not be said to have subdued the island. Mela (ii. 6.) names the place of his birth, but the different manuscripts give various readings. It was certainly in Spain but whether it was Tingentera or Cingentera, and in what part of the country it was situated, we do not know. His name is also written Mella in many of the ancient manuscripts. The family too from which he was descended is equally a subject of dispute. Some imagine that he was descended from the family of Annæus, and suppose either that he was the son of Marcus Annæus Seneca, the orator, or that he was his grandson by L. Annæus Seneca, the celebrated philosopher. The former opinion is grounded principally on the fact that Seneca the orator has dedicated the first and the fifth of his ten books to his three sons, M. A. Novatus, L. A. Seneca, and L. A. Mela. The chief objections arise from our never finding Annæus preceding the name of Mela. The work of Mela on geography is entitled De situ Orbis, in three books, and has come down to us in the same state as Mela wrote it, with the exception of the numerous blunders of the transcribers. He has derived most of his information from Greek geographers, adopting, more particularly, the system of Eratosthenes. After a few introductory remarks on the globe in general, the author in his first book gives a description of Mauritania on the western coast of Africa, then Numidia, Africa Proper, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lyca, Caria, Ionia, Aëolis, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and the other districts along the coast of the Euxine. In his second he describes the countries on the banks of the Tanais, (Don,) the Scythians, Thrace, Macedon, Thessaly, Hellas, Peloponnesus, Epirus, Illyria, Gaul, Spain, and terminates his description where he began. In the third he describes the north-western coast of Spain, Germany, Sarmatia, the countries on the Caspian sea, Carmania, Persia, Arabia; then he passes into Africa, where he gives some account of western Ethiopia, and terminates his description at Cape Ampelus, in Mauritania. The style of Mela is concise and spirited, though somewhat affected. The best editions are those of Gronovius, 1696, and of Tschucke, Leipzig, 1806. (See Tschucke Diss. de Pomponio Mela.)